A.A. Berle met with Whittaker Chambers (Isaac Don Levine
also in attendance) on the evening of September 2, 1939."Berle did not retire immediately.Instead he transcribed his handwritten notes
and memories of the conversation on an office typewriter; he titled the
four-page memo ‘Underground Espionage Agent.’Chambers dropped Levine at his hotel and drove back to Westminster,
while Levine -- still highly agitated after listening for the first time to
Chambers's elaborate recital of his underground work and contacts, -- jotted
down on his hotel stationary the names he remembered having been
mentioned."[1]

Berle's notes became a government exhibit at Hiss's
second trial and a copy can be found in Volume VI of the transcript, attached
to p. 3325.Transcriptions can be found
in Whittaker Chambers’ Witness and U.S. Senate Internal Security
Subcommittee, Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments.[2]

The one major difference between Levine’s list and that
of Berle was Levine’s inclusion of Harry Dexter White.In Witness Chambers identified White
as part of his espionage apparatus but wrote that he did not remember telling
Berle of White and thought he deliberate left out White as well as George
Silverman because he hoped he had convinced both to break with the Communist underground.

Abt, John. Stated in his
autobiography that he had been a secret Communist and a participant in Harold
Ware’s underground group.Identified as
assisting Soviet espionage by Elizabeth Bentley, in a deciphered KGB cable
(Venona), and in the KGB documents cited in Weinstein and Vassiliev’s Haunted
Wood.[4]

Adler, Schlomer (Solomon):Identified as assisting Soviet espionage by
Elizabeth Bentley, deciphered KGB cables (Venona), and KGB documents cited in
Weinstein and Vassiliev’s The Haunted Wood.In the 1950s Adler emigrated to China and became a Maoist spokesman.[5]

Bacharach, Marion (correctly
spelled Bachrach):She was John Abt’s
sister, a secret Communist, and secretary to U.S. Representative from Minnesota
John Bernard, a Farmer-Labor Party member aligned with the CPUSA (he formally
joined the CPUSA later in his life.)Abt in his autobiography wrote that his sister had been recruited into
the party by Harold Ware himself.Moscow archival documents show that in 1942 the KGB asked Comintern for
background information on Bachrach, possibly as part of a vetting process for
recruitment but possibly for other reasons as well.[6]

Coe, Bob:Robert Coe was president of Harold Ware’s
Communist-front Farm Research Incorporated, edited its publication, “Facts for
Farmers,” wrote for the CPUSA’s Political Affairs under the pseudonym
Robert Digby and appeared in the Daily Worker as late as February 1950.[7]

Coe, Frank.Identified as assisting Soviet espionage by
Elizabeth Bentley, deciphered KGB cables (Venona), and KGB document cited in The
Haunted Wood.[8]Emigrated to the PRC in the 1950s and became
a Maoist spokesman.

Gompertz, Hedda (Hede
Massing).Confirmed in her
autobiography that she had been a KGB agent who had recruited Noel Field and
had contact with Alger Hiss (know to her as a GRU source) and testified to the
same at the second Hiss trial.Massing
is identified as a KGB agent in deciphered KGB cables (Venona) and KGB
documents in The Haunted Wood.[12]

Greenberg: Nothing known.

Henderson, Loy.Henderson was a senior American diplomat at
the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and firmly anti-Communist.Chambers told Berle that Henderson’s secret report to the U.S.
Department of State of his interview with Mrs. Rubens (of the Robertson/Rubens
case involving Soviet espionage agents’ use of fraudulent American passports)
was immediately sent to Moscow after it reached Washington.One of the “Baltimore documents” that
Chambers produced in 1948 was a hand-written summary, nearly a complete
transcript, of a Henderson cable to the DOS about the Robertson/Rubens
case.A handwriting expert for the
government testified at the Hiss trial that the writing was in Alger Hiss’s own
hand.Handwriting experts for the
defense privately confirmed the government’s findings.Berle’s comment at the end of his notes that
Chambers had told him that Henderson’s reports on the Robertson/Rubens matters
were being swiftly sent to Moscow indicated he realized he was being told of
the theft of State Department communications, i.e., espionage.Mrs. Rubens was actually Ruth Birkland, an
American Communist married to Arnold Ikal, a KGB officer who used the fake
identities and false American passport of Adolph A. Rubens and Donald L.
Robinson when operating in the United States.

Hiss, Alger.Documented as assisting Soviet espionage by
the “Baltimore” and “Pumpkin Papers,” by the testimony of Hede Massing, by Noel
Field’s debriefing by Hungarian Communist security police, by KGB documents
quoted and cited in the 1997 edition ofWeinstein’s Perjury and Weinstein and Vassiliev’s Haunted Wood,
and by a single Venona document.[13]

Hiss, Donald.In addition to his identification by
Whittaker Chambers as assisting Chambers’ apparatus, the one deciphered Venona
message about Alger Hiss refers to members of his family assisting him.Additionally he is identified in the Anatoly
Gorsky KGB memo as having been a Soviet source compromised by Chambers’
defection.[14]

Hiss, Priscilla.Chambers told Berle that Priscilla had been
in the Socialist Party in the early 1930s.Priscilla under oath denied ever being a S.P. member.However, August Claessens of S.P. at the
Hiss trial produced a S.P. membership form signed by Priscilla as a member of the
Morningside Heights S.P. branch, one dominated by Communist sympathizers and
headed by Corliss Lamont, a leading Communist Fellow Traveler.Additionally one forensic typewriter
examiner for the defense in the Hiss trials concluded that the typed State Department
material Chambers had saved from 1948 was not only typed on the Hiss family
typewriter but the pattern of typing fitted Priscilla Hiss, a conclusion that
matched with Chambers’ assertions.[15]

Karp: This is Sam Carp (Carpowski),
head of the Carp Export and Import Co. and brother-in-law of Soviet leader
Viacheslav Molotov.The House Special
Committee on Un-American Activities questioned Carp in 1939 and his testimony
can be found in Vol. 8 of "Investigation of Un-American Propaganda
Activities in the United States," 76th Congress, 1st Session.Carp recounts how in the early 1930s he was
contracted by Soviet official Arkadii Rozengolts to arrange the construction of
two 35,000-ton battleships for the Soviet Navy through American shipyards and
companies and was authorized to expend up to $100,000,000 to do so.Actual construction eventually fell through,
but a set of plans was produced and later taken to Moscow by a retired officer
of US Naval Intelligence.

Krivitsky, Charles (changed his
name to Charles Kramer), identified as part of the Ware Group and the
Washington C.P. underground in the 1930s by Nathaniel Weyl, Lee Pressman, and
Hope Hale Davis and as assisting Soviet espionage in the 1940s by Elizabeth
Bentley, deciphered KGB cables (Venona) and the KGB documents cited in The
Haunted Wood.[16]

Lovell, of Department of
State.Nothing known.

Miller, Isador.Miller was a chemist who worked at the U.S.
government explosives arsenal in Picatinny.Interviewed by the FBI, Miller confirmed that he had supplied information
on explosives to Philip Rosenbliet’s espionage network.He denied, however, knowing that the
information went to the USSR.[17]

Moren, Mack (alias
Philipovitch)Nothing additional known.

Nelson, Elinor (correctly
spelled Eleanor).Nelson was an open
organizer for the CIO’s federal employees union and identified by numerous
persons [Herbert Fuchs and Paul Porter (former husband)among others] as a secret Communist Party
activist.Julian Wadleigh in the second
Hiss trial testified to having been a spy for Chambers’ apparatus and that
Eleanor Nelson had originally recruited him.[18]

Peters:J.Peters was, as Chambers said, a former activist in the short-lived Bela
Kun Communist regime in Hungary and a CPUSA official in its Hungarian ethnic
section.Despite his public denial,
CPUSA and Comintern documents at the RGASPI archive in Moscow show that he
headed the CPUSA underground apparatus from the early 1930s until Chambers’
defection in 1938.He is identified as
assisting Soviet espionage in deciphered KGB cables and in the KGB documents of
The Haunted Wood.[19]

Post:Probably Richard Post of the Department of State.Suspected of being a secret Communist but no
clear evidence has surfaced.

Pressman, Lee: In 1950 Lee
Pressman testified that he had been a secret member of the CPUSA in 1934 and
1935 and, although no longer officially a party member, a firm ideological
Communist from 1936 to 1950.He agreed
there had been a group in the AAA (the Ware group) that had met with J. Peters
of the CPUSA.Although he depicted the
group as an study club of government employees who got together to discuss
political theory, he admitted that several of its leading figures (himself,
Nathan Witt, John Abt, and Charles Kramer) were Communists.Later, he privately admitted to Jerome
Frank, a leading AAA official, that the group, too, had been a Communist party
enterprise.[20]

Reno, Philip.He did work for the Social Security
Board.Herbert Fuchs, a leader of the
secret C.P. caucus at the NLRB in the late 1930s, identified Reno as a figure
in the committee that coordinated the party work of secret Communists in the
U.S. government in the mid-1930s.[21]

Reno, Vincent (aka Franklin
Victor Reno).He was, as Chambers told
Berle, a mathematicians (statistician) at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving
Grounds working on advanced military technology.Confronted by the FBI, in 1949 he confessed that he had supplied
technical data to Chambers’ espionage apparatus in the mid-1930s.In 1952 he pled guilty to perjury and was
imprisoned for submitting deceptive information on his federal employment and
security application for employment at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.[22]

Rosenbliett, Philip [also
spelled Rosenbliet] Isador Miller admitted to the FBI that he furnished
information on explosives from the U.S. government arsenal in Picatinny, NJ, to
Philip Rosenbliet’s network.Rosenbliet’s
nephew, Richard Tourin, wrote in his memoir that his family shared an residence
with the Rosenbliets and his father was the photographer for Rosenbliet’s
espionage network.[23]

Trachtenberg, Alexander.Trachtenberg was a long-time senior CPUSA
officer and had a role in receiving secret CPUSA subsidies from the USSR, but
active links to Soviet espionage that Chambers asserted are not
corroborated.

Volkov:This is Isaac Folkoff, senior member of the
California C.P. and West Coast liaison between the KGB and the CPUSA.His role in Soviet espionage is documented
by deciphered KGB cables (Venona) and the testimony of William Crane,
California Communist and photographer for Chambers’ espionage apparatus.[24]

Wadleigh, Julian.An official of the foreign trade agreements
section of the Department of State, he testified in 1949 that he had furnished
Department of State information to Chambers’ espionage apparatus.[25]

Ware Group:While many Hiss defenders long denied that
any such group ever existed, its existence was attested to by Lee Pressman,
Nathaniel Weyl, Hope Hale Davis, John Abt, and others.

White, Harry Dexter.In Levine’s list but not Berle’s.Chambers identified White as part of his
espionage apparatus and the espionage produce he save from 1938 and produced in
1948 included several pages in White’s handwriting.White’s cooperation with Soviet intelligence is also confirmed by
Elizabeth Bentley, deciphered KGB cables (Venona, and the KGB documents cited
in The Haunted Wood.[26]

Wiener:William Weiner, long-time CPUSA official,
was convicted of passport fraud and was vice-president of World Tourists, Inc.,
whose chief, Jacob Golos, was convicted of being a unregistered agent of a
foreign power (USSR) and was the CPUSA’s liaison with Soviet espionage.Weiner as the CPUSA’s long-time financial
manager, he also had a role in receiving secret subsidies from the USSR.A direct personal role in Soviet espionage,
however, is not corroborated.

Witt, Nathan.That Witt was a secret member of the CPUSA
and of the Ware Group was attested to by Lee Pressman, Herbert Fuchs, Hope Hale
Davis, Joseph Lash and others.[27]

[6]On Bachrach Communist background and her work for Rep.
Bernard, a strong ally of the CPUSA, see Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and
Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, The Secret World of American Communism (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 318–19 and Hope Hale Davis, Great
Day Coming: A Memoir of the 1930s (South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Press,
1994), 69; Abt, Advocate, 40–41.

[11]Massing, This Deception.; Mária Schmidt, “Noel
Field -- The American Communist at the Center of Stalin’s East European Purge:
From the Hungarian Archives,” American Communist History 3,
no. 2 (December 2004); Weinstein and Vassiliev, Haunted Wood, 4–11,
34–35, 44, 48, 80.

[13]Weinstein, Perjury [1997]; Haynes and Klehr, Venona
[2000], 167–73; Weinstein and Vassiliev, Haunted Wood, 12,38–49,
165,269; Schmidt, “Noel Field -- The
American Communist at the Center of Stalin’s East European Purge: From the
Hungarian Archives.”

[20]Gilbert J. Gall, Pursuing Justice: Lee Pressman,
the New Deal, and the CIO (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1999); Latham, Controversy, 107–09; Joseph P. Lash, Dealers and
Dreamers: A New Look at the New Deal (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 218,
326, 434–37.